The present invention relates to a linear actuator used for driving a head, particularly a recording/reading or magnetic head in a disk drive apparatus.
A conventional linear actuator of this type is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-501135. This actuator has a permanent magnet arrangement for driving a carriage with a motor coil. The permanent magnet arrangement defines a magnetic field along a direction perpendicular to a plane including a magnetic disk. The permanent magnet arrangement requires a yoke extending along a direction perpendicular to the surface of the magnetic disk. For this reason, the above linear actuator has a large height in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the magnetic disk. As a result, a flat-profile arrangement of the disk drive apparatus cannot be obtained.